Installation

Configuration

The primary method of configuration for the touchpad is through an Xorg server configuration file. After installation of xf86-input-synaptics, a default configuration file is located at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf.

Users can edit this file to configure the various driver options available, for a complete list of all available options users should refer to the synaptics manual page:

$ man synaptics

Frequently used options

The following lists options that many users may wish to configure. Note that all these options can simply be added to the main configuration file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf, as shown in this example configuration file where we have enabled vertical, horizontal and circular scrolling:

(integer) configures which mouse-button is reported on a non-corner, one finger tap.

TapButton2

(integer) configures which mouse-button is reported on a non-corner, two finger tap

TapButton3

(integer) configures which mouse-button is reported on a non-corner, three finger tap

RBCornerButton

(integer) configures which mouse-button is reported on a right bottom corner, one finger tap (use Option "RBCornerButton" "3" to achieve Ubuntu style tap behaviour for right mouse button in lower right corner)

RTCornerButton

(integer) as above, but for top right corner, one finger tap.

VertEdgeScroll

(boolean) enables vertical scrolling while dragging across the right edge of the touch pad.

HorizEdgeScroll

(boolean) enables horizontal scrolling while dragging across the bottom edge of the touch pad.

VertTwoFingerScroll

(boolean) enables vertical scrolling using two fingers.

HorizTwoFingerScroll

(boolean) enables horizontal scrolling using two fingers.

EmulateTwoFingerMinZ/W

(integer) play with this value to set the precision of two finger scroll.

An example with a brief description of all options. As usual settings will vary between machines. It is recommended that you discover your own options using synclient.

Note: If you find that your hand frequently brushes your touchpad, causing the TapButton2 option to be triggered (which will more than likely paste from your clipboard), and you do not mind losing two-finger-tap functionality, set TapButton2 to 0.

Note: Recent versions include a "Coasting" feature, enabled by default, which may have the undesired effect of continuing almost any scrolling until the next tap or click, even if you are no longer touching the touchpad. This means that to scroll just a bit, you need to scroll (by using the edge, or a multitouch option) and then almost immediately tap the touchpad, otherwise scrolling will continue forever. If wish to avoid this, set CoastingSpeed to 0.

GNOME

Users of GNOME may have to edit its configuration as well, because in default it is set to disable tapping to click, horizontal scrolling and not to allow touchpad disabling while typing.

To change these settings in Gnome 2:

Run gconf-editor

Edit the keys in the /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/ folder.

To change these settings in Gnome 3:

Open System Settings.

Click Mouse and Touchpad.

Change the settings on the Touchpad tab.

Gnome settings daemon may override existing settings (for example ones set in xorg.conf.d) for which there is no equivalent in any of the graphical configuration utilities. It is possible to stop gnome from touching mouse settings at all:

Run dconf-editor

Edit /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/mouse/

Uncheck the active setting

It will now respect your system's existing synaptics configuration.

Configuration on the fly

Next to the traditional method of configuration, the Synaptics driver also supports on the fly configuration. This means that users can set certain options through a software application, these options are applied immediately without needing a restart of X. This is useful to test configuration options before you include them in the configuration file. On-the-fly configuration is non-permanent and will not remain active though a reboot, suspend / resume or restart of udev. This should only be used to test, fine-tune or script configuration features.

In order for many of this tools to work you need to have the SHMConfig Option in your 10-synaptic.conf

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf

…
Option "SHMConfig" "on" # or Option "SHMConfig" "true"
…

Console tools

Recommended: Synclient — command line utility to configure and query Synaptics driver settings on a live system, the tool is developed by the synaptics driver maintainers and is provided with the synaptics driver

Graphical tools

GPointing Device Settings — provides graphical on the fly configuration for several pointing devices connected to the system, including your synaptics touch pad. This application replaces GSynaptics as the preferred tool for graphical touchpad configuration through the synaptics driver

Deprecated!GSynaptics — allows the user to configure options such as horizontal, vertical and circular scrolling as well as the option to enable or disable the touchpad. The GSynaptics website mentions that its development has stopped and that it will eventually be outdated, the application functions perfectly with xorg 1.11, through users looking for a graphical tools are suggested to use GPointingDeviceSettings instead, GSynaptics should only be used as a last resort

After you have successfully tried and tested your options through synclient, you can make these changes permanent by adding them to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf.

The synclient monitor can display pressure and placement on the touchpad in real-time, allowing further refinement of the default Synaptics settings.

You can start the Synaptics monitor with the following command:

$ synclient -m 100

Where -m activates the monitor and the following number specifies the update interval in milliseconds.

This monitor provides information about the current state of your touchpad. For example, if you move the mouse with the touchpad, the x and y values in the monitor will change. Therewith you can easy figure out your touchpad's dimension which is defined in the LeftEdge-, RightEdge-, BottomEdge- and TopEdge-Options.

The abbreviations for the parameters are as follow:

Abbreviation

Description

time

Time in seconds since the logging was started.

x, y

The x/y coordinates of the finger on the touchpad. The origin is in the upper left corner.

z

The pressure value. It represents the pressure you are using to navigate on your touchpad.

f

Number of fingers currently touching the touchpad.

w

Value that represents the finger width.

l,r,u,d,m,multi

Those values represent the state of the left, right, up, down, middle and multi buttons pressed where zero means not pressed and one means pressed.

gl,gm,gr

For touchpads which have a guest device, this are the associated button states for guest left, guest middle and guest right pressed (1) and not pressed (0).

gdx, gdy

x/y coordinates of the guest device.

If a value constantly is zero, it implies that this option is not supported by your device.

Now use synclient to test new values. For example, to adjust minimum pointer speed:

$ synclient MinSpeed=0.5

To make the changes permanent, they will need to be put in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf file.

Circular scrolling

Circular scrolling is a feature that Synaptics offers which closely resembles the behaviour of iPods. Instead of (or additional to) scrolling horizontally or vertically, you can scroll circularly. Some users find this faster and more precise.
To enable circular scrolling, add the following options to the touchpad device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf:

The option CircScrollTrigger may be one of the following values, determining which edge circular scrolling should start:

0 All Edges
1 Top Edge
2 Top Right Corner
3 Right Edge
4 Bottom Right Corner
5 Bottom Edge
6 Bottom Left Corner
7 Left Edge
8 Top Left Corner

Specifying something different from zero may be useful if you want to use circular scrolling in conjunction with horizontal and/or vertical scrolling. If you do so, the type of scrolling is determined by the edge you start from.

To scroll fast, draw small circles in the center of your touchpad. To scroll slowly and more precise, draw large circles.

Software Toggle

You may find it useful to have a software toggle that will turn on or off your touchpad, especially if it is extremely sensitive and you are doing a lot of typing. Please also see #Disable touchpad upon external mouse detection as that may be better solution, a matter of choice. The advantage here is you have the control, while the other solution has a daemon determine when to turn off the trackpad.

You will want to grab xbindkeys if you do not already have key binding software.

Touchpad detected as "PS/2 Generic Mouse" or "Logitech PS/2 mouse"

This is caused by a kernel bug which was fixed in kernel version 3.3. Wrongly detected touchpads cannot be configured with the Synaptic input driver. To fix this, simply install the AUR package psmouse-elantechAUR.

In some cases Synaptics touchpads only work partially. Features like two-finger scrolling or two-finger middle-click do not work even if properly enabled. This is probably related to the The touchpad is not working problem mentioned above. Fix is the same, prevent double module loading.

If preventing the module from loading twice does not solve your issue, try commenting out the toggle "MatchIsTouchpad" (which is now included by default in the synaptics config).

Disable touchpad upon external mouse detection

With the assistance of udev, it is possible to automatically disable the touchpad if an external mouse has been plugged in. To achieve this, add the following udev rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/01-touchpad.rules:

If you are using a login manager, you will need to specify the command where your DE allows you to do so.

Using a Login Manager

Note: You will need to have SHMConfig enabled in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf.

The "-d" option is necessary to start syndaemon as a background process for post Login instructions.

For GNOME: (GDM)

To start syndaemon you need to use Gnome's Startup Applications Preferences program. Login to Gnome and go to System > Preferences > Startup Applications. In the Startup Programs tab click the Add button. Name the Startup Program whatever you like and input any comments you like (or leave this field blank). In the command field add:

$ syndaemon -t -k -i 2 -d &

When you are done, click the Add button in the Add Startup Program dialogue. Make sure the check box next to the startup program you have created is checked, in the list of additional startup programs. Close the Startup Applications Preferences window and you are done.

Firefox and special touchpad events

By default, Firefox is set up to do special events upon tapping or scrolling certain parts of your touchpad.
You can edit the settings of those actions by typing about:config in your Firefox address bar.
To alter these options, double-click on the line in question, changing "true" to "false" and vise versa.

To prevent Firefox from scrolling (backward/forward) through browser history and instead scroll through pages, edit these settings as shown:

Scrolling and multiple actions with Synaptics on LG Laptops

These problems seem to be occurring on several models of LG laptops.
Symptoms include: when pressing Mouse Button 1, Synaptics interprets it as ScrollUP and a regular button 1 click; same goes for button 2.

The scrolling issue can be resolved by entering in xorg.conf:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/xorg.conf

Option "UpDownScrolling" "0"

NOTE that this will make Synaptics interpret one button push as three. There is a patch written by Oskar Sandberg[1] that removes these clicks.

Apparently, when trying to compile this against the latest version of Synaptics it fails. The solution to this is using the GIT repository for Synaptics[2].

SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad can not grab event device, errno=16

If you are using Xorg 7.4, you may get a warning like this from /var/log/Xorg.0.log, thais is because the driver will grab the event device for exclusive use when using the Linux 2.6 event protocol. When it fails, X will return this error message.

Grabbing the event device means that no other user space or kernel space program sees the touchpad events. This is desirable if the X config file includes /dev/input/mice as an input device, but is undesirable if you want to monitor the device from user space.

If you want to control it, add or modify the "GrabEventDevice" option in you touchpad section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf

...
Option "GrabEventDevice" "''boolean''"
...

This will come into effect when X is restarted, though you can also change it by using synclient. When changing this parameter with the synclient program, the change will not take effect until the Synaptics driver is disabled and re-enabled. This can be achieved by switching to a text console and then switching back to X.

Synaptics Loses Multitouch Detection After Rebooting From Windows

Many drivers include a firmware that is loaded into flash memory when the computer boots. This firmware is not necessarily cleared upon shutdown, and is not always compatible with Linux drivers. The only way to clear the flash memory is to shutdown completely rather than using reboot. It is generally considered best practice to never use reboot when switching between operating systems.

Buttonless TouchPads (aka ClickPads)

Some laptops have a special kind of touchpad which has the mouse buttons as part of the tracking plate, instead of being external buttons. HP series 4500 Probooks and X220 and X1 Thinkpads have this kind of a touchpad. By default, both of the mouse buttons are detected as one resulting in the second mouse button being unusable and click + drag will not work. To enable the second mouse button, modify the touchpad section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf:

The soft button areas vary from touchpad to touchpad but the above values are sensible defaults. To view the current soft button areas, run synclient -l | grep ButtonArea. To modify them temporarily, run synclient var=value.

Touchpad detected as mouse (elantech touchpads)

This can happend on some laptops with elantech touchpad, for example ASUS x53s. In this situation you need psmouse-elantechAUR package from AUR.

"Auto-Scrolling" introduced with 1.5.99.903

To disable the new "Auto-Scrolling" feature introduced in the newest release release (it keeps scrolling, even if you already stopped scrolling, similar to how an android phone scrolling works), add the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf: